LAST WEDNESDAY thousands of students from around Britain marched through central London demanding an end to tuition fees, student loans and the reintroduction of the maintenance grant, writes Paul Hunt , Coventry Socialist Party.

Underfunded, Understaffed, Under Threat: OVER THE past week Tony Blair and health secretary Alan Milburn have been preparing the way for tax rises in the coming budget to pay for increased funding of the national health service, writes Jackie Grunsell, health worker.

Fight the Post Office sell off: NEW LABOUR'S fixation with privatisation knows no limits. Our postal services are next for the 'fat cat' treatment. Tony Blair and the postal regulator want all business mail to be open to private companies.

No Education Cuts: THIS FRIDAY, 15 March, the European Council, part of the European Union (EU), is meeting in Barcelona. It will discuss the future of our education system throughout Europe, writes Amrita Huggins.

AS US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, tours the world drumming up support for military action against Iraq, the Los Angeles Times has revealed that the US administration is prepared to use nuclear weapons in an offensive capacity against non-nuclear countries

AS THE government tries to force through privatisation of the Post Office, health service, education, transport and other public services, more and more workers are questioning the link between the unions and New Labour

IN A week when MPs put their pay up to £55,000 and schools minister Estelle Morris' pay to over £135,000 - teachers in London went on strike to demand enough money to live on, writes Debra Morano, Newham National Union of Teachers (NUT) committee member, personal capacity.

LAST WEEKEND over 500,000 marched through the streets of Barcelona against the European heads of states' meeting in that city. This was the biggest anti-capitalist demonstration yet, writes Hannah Sell.

AS BRITAIN'S Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon sends 1,700 British commandos to fight al-Qa'ida and Taliban in Afghanistan, opinion polls suggest there will be big opposition if Blair backs US escalation of military action to attack Saddam Hussein in Iraq, writes Roger Shrives.

THE RIGHT-WING Berlusconi government has provoked a tidal wave of anger and struggle from the Italian workers, culminating in the three main trade union confederations agreeing to call a general strike in April, writes Peter Taaffe

THE POST Office bosses' mass redundancy programme must be resisted. 40,000 workers, one-fifth of the total, face the sack because New Labour is letting greedy privateers carve up the postal delivery market

Birmingham: Vote "No" to housing transfers: UNTIL 8 April, Birmingham city council are balloting all their 88,000 council tenant households on whether to transfer the housing stock to new private landlords

Trade union action can...: NEW LABOUR were elected promising education would be their top priority. Five years later, schools are in crisis. Poor pay and conditions are driving teachers out of the classroom, writes Linda Taaffe, National Union of Teachers (NUT) national executive, personal capacity.